WRITING SERVICES CC

THE MRA INJECTED WITH NEW LIFE

AGMs don’t usually attract crowds let alone on a cold Johannesburg night. For a change and for change, the MRA AGM on August 6 was well attended by the people of Melville determined to make a difference. It was a lively occasion, as far as these things go.

Opening the meeting, one of the co-chairmen decided to issue a veiled threat to those who use social media to express dissatisfaction with the MRA.

My open letter to the MRA on I Love Melville clearly hit a spot. Not that this was news to me given the correspondence from a committee member, copied to all of them, with a request that the mails remain confidential. The irony is that one of my problems with that committee was its invisibility and secrecy about what they were doing – if they were doing – which, as a paid up member of the MRA I believe was my democratic right.

As a journalist in the bad old apartheid days, I opposed censorship and it’s a position I still hold dear, on which subject the only thing more to say to the old committee members who have elected to stay put (all but one), is get with the programme. Social networks are not going anywhere any time soon. Used intelligently and responsibly, they’re the best thing to happen to communication. And constructive criticism comes with the territory.

In any event, what was, was. New blood will breathe new energy into the all-important residents’ association. I’m delighted to say that the once anonymous Jay Cee walked it as those present endorsed his election to the incoming MRA.

I am reasonably confident that the new guard – which happens to include a woman and a 27-year-old man – will be talking to their constituency using any effective means.